The Raven & The Wolf

Chapter Twenty-One

When I wake, I find I am freezing, and it’s the sound of my teeth chattering that fully wake me. I open my eyes and shiver. There is hard white snow surrounding me. It’s been pushed down and rubbed smooth, trapping the cold around my body.

“Why is there snow packed around me?” My voice is even cold. I think my body is going to snap in half. I can’t even locate a single body part underneath all this snow.

“She’s awake!” That is Stanya’s voice for sure. I look at her and I’m surprised to find stars are behind her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m cold,” I whine. “Why am I cold Stanya?” My mind is groggy, making it hard to understand what is truly going on.

“Your overload fever is too high for us to safely do a removal right now,” She tells me; resting her hand on my forehead. “We had to move you outside to try to cool your fever down. Water wasn’t working, and there wasn’t ice available that doesn’t have magic inside. Gedric thought of putting you in a snowpack.”

I groan. “Tell him I’m going to smack him when I get out of this.”

“Natasha, thank the Fates you’re alive,” Merry says, pushing Stanya to the side. “What happened? Malay just keeps apologizing when I ask her what happened.”

“She tried to heal me.” I say with my teeth clenched. “Can I please be near a fire or something?” I beg.

Merry looks at me with worry in her voice. “Malay tried to heal you? With magic?” The caution in her voice is understandable. The stronger the persons magic is, that sent me into an overload, the harder it’s going to be on my body.

“Yes. Her mind was somewhere else when she tried to heal me. She only really focused that I was complaining, not that I was already recovering from overload. It wasn’t intentional.”

“She’s saying it was.” Merry tells me. “She won’t come near you.”

“What are you talking about?” I demand, trying to sit up.

“Gedric, push her down.” Merry tells him, quickly jumping away from me.

Within seconds, I feel him push me down by my good shoulder. “Relax Nat.” He tells me quickly. “The second you get out of this snowpack, you’re going to get too hot again.”

“What did Merry mean about saying it was on purpose?” I demand. “I saw her face. It wasn’t intentional.”

“She’s saying differently,” Merry says, just out of sight.

“Well she’s wrong.” I tell her. “Get this overload over with. Please.” I beg, in pure frozen hell. “Gedric, I’m going to put you in a snowbank if you don’t get me out of this.”

“Let me put it this way,” Gedric starts with a surprisingly firm tone. “If you come out of there, you’ll die. Now stay put.”

“But cold,” I whine.

“But death,” he mocks, matching my tone. He’s definitely had it with me.

“Enough you two,” Stanya snaps. “She didn’t do this on purpose so back off.” She snaps at Gedric. She then turns her attention to me. “What happened?”

“Well, after Malay lectured me, she found out about the Fates visiting me. That sent her down the panic rabbit hole. She was in overthinking mode when she was checking my shoulder. I screamed ouch, and she reflexively healed me. It wasn’t until I shoved her off of me, that she realized what she had done.”

I squirm a little, earning a hard push down from Gedric. He puts his hand on my forehead while I speak with annoyance in my tone. “Why can’t my overload removal be done?”

“Because no one is powerful enough to deal with the trapped magic from Malay, and you. When Malay healed you, she left magic inside of you. That’s why it’s too dangerous for us to try. Merry can handle Malay’s, but we need someone who can separate yours. We’re waiting for Lylth to get here.”

I grimace, I’m not going to make it that long. “I’m strong enough.” I point out.

“You’re the one suffering,” Merry argues.

“I know that.” I take a deep breath. “Use my stone to filter my magic. Stanya knows how.”

“I can’t manipulate the magic correctly, and fill a bowl.” Stanya argues.

“Get Gedric to do the bowl.” I nearly yell.

“I can’t use magic.” Gedric points out.

“Just picture the biggest bowl you can think of damn it.” I yell, this time losing my temper. I feel wet, which means the snow is beginning to melt, which means my body temperature is going up.

“What about what my dad does?” Gedric asks, desperate to avoid magic as always.

“Natasha is not someone we should experiment on.” Stanya argues.

“I agree,” Merry says. “I can handle cycling her blood, and separating Malay’s magic.”

“I still can only handle separating Natasha’s magic. I haven’t had enough practice using physical magic to heal, to do more than one thing. We still have to have someone monitor her; and touch her that doesn’t have magic.” Stanya points out.

“Why can’t someone who has magic touch me,” I cut in, trying to think of a way around the situation.

“Because you’re so sensitive right now, we’re afraid of you absorbing others magic. When Stanya found you, she felt you trying to pull her magic.” Gedric tells me, letting Stanya and Merry argue more about how to treat me.

That confuses me. “I’ve never done that before.”

“Maybe it’s because of Malay’s strength, and you were still recovering from being infected by blood magic.” Gedric suggests. “That’s something that’s never happened before.”

“Maybe,” I allow. He’s probably right. My system is going to be quite vulnerable for a while. The Fates handcuffing me with my power is either the most stupid, or genius, thing they could have done. Depending on their end game. All I know is, if I’m going to compete with these overloads, I have to become immortal; because I’m not sure how much more my body can handle.

“What is your dad’s way to handle overload, anyway?” I ask, more than annoyed that the girls are still arguing.

“Basically, we pull your overloaded magic out of you without using magic.” Gedric looks down at me. “Why is my hand sweating?”

“Because my fever is spiking.” I grimace, nearly forgetting his hand was still on my head. “How would you do that?”

“Your magic is thicker than your blood, and more viscous. We drain you of your blood and magic. Once it’s separated, it should be fine to guide your blood back into your body with magic.”

“And how, oh non magical one, do you intend to do that?” I ask him, feeling my heart growing weaker. Yep, I’m dead.

He rolls his eyes, “Just say the word.”

I eye him carefully. “If this fails, you might want to make sure I’m sealed. If this overload kills me, I’ll explode and wipe out this entire city and mountain.”

“You’ll explode?” He demands, his voice growing higher.

“What did you think happens?” I ask with a bit of sarcasm. “You’re literally being overflooded with magic. It’s going to find a way out eventually.”

“Nothing is simple with magic, is it?” He grumbles. “Hey!” He shouts, cutting off the others bickering. “She’s sweating, my hand is sweating, her fever is spiking. Will you two shut it, and go get me Natasha’s stone, grotchen paper, fenyx powder, a knife, a wooden tube, a colander, the biggest bowl you can find, and a needle and thread to stitch her up. Now!”

“Why would we do that?” Merry asks with a little attitude in her voice.

“Now!” I scream, and it’s not from the cold. In an instance Merry’s purple magic lights up Gedric’s face briefly while she disappears.

“What are you going to do?” Stanya asks, sitting next to me.

“Something productive,” Gedric snaps. “We should have done this an hour ago.”

“She wasn’t awake enough to assess her.”

“She might have died!”

“We needed to find out what we were dealing with. Natasha confirmed it was overload.” Stanya says calmly.

“She confirmed it before she fainted. Malay even confirmed it. You were wasting time waiting for her. She can’t handle every decision.” Gedric is near yelling at this point, and I’m truly surprised by the words coming out of him.

“Will you two stop,” Merry snaps, a flash of light announcing her arrival.

“Deal,” Gedric mutters, taking the supplies from Merry.

Gedric pushes the thick, purple grotchen paper into the bottom of the colander. He packs more around it and covers every inch of the colander with it. After he’s done with the paper, he covers every inch of the paper with fenyx powder. Once that is done, he puts it inside the bowl. “Okay, now Stanya, for once in your life forget about her magic and just filter her blood back into her.”

He doesn’t wait for her response. He takes the knife and cuts into my jugular; since the rest of me is completely packed in snow. After inserting the tube into my neck, blood starts pouring through it, hitting the paper. As if by magic, the gold separates from my blood. My blood floats above the grotchen paper while my magic seeps through the paper and flows into the bowl below. There is a swirl of purple in with my gold colored magic. They weren’t wrong. Malay’s magic was trapped inside of my body.

“How…” Stanya starts, but is silenced by a hard glare from Gedric. Once Gedric returns to focusing on sufficiently draining me, Stanya grabs my stone and starts filtering my blood from the grotchen paper and fenyx powder. After my blood has run out, and Stanya has removed my blood from the colander, Gedric removes it; letting the rest of my magic flow uninterrupted into the bowl. Merry starts pulling Malay’s magic from my magic while we wait for the overload to finish. After it’s finished, Stanya threads my blood back into me.

After the last drop is put back in me, and my magic has stopped flowing out of me, Gedric gets to work and starts stitching me up. He answers every ones question while handling me with care. “Fenyx powder reacts with most liquid, and creates a thin barrier to protect solid surfaces from getting wet. It separated Natasha’s blood from the grotchen paper; while her magic, being magic, wasn’t affected by it. It leaked through the paper into the bowl below.”

“That’s amazing,” Merry breathes, picking up the bowl of wild magic. She looks him over with a more critical eye. “You may have saved her life with this procedure.”

“I’m just glad she believed in me,” Gedric mutters under his breath. He quickly flashes her a winning smile; covering himself. “Glad to have helped.”

I roll my eyes at the cliché line. “If we’re all done being all congratulatory, can we please get me out of the stupid snow?” I whine, my body truly feeling the intensity of the frozen snowpack for the first time. I almost miss my fever.

Gedric nods and pulls me out of the snow while Stanya holds the bowl so Merry can remove Malay’s magic. “How are you feeling?”

“Like an ice cube,” I shiver, leaning into his warm body unconsciously. I flash him a smile. “Thank you. I really do mean it.”

“Just don’t do that bowing thing, and we’ll call it good,” Gedric answers; flashing me a sincere smile. “Do you remember what caused Malay to try to heal you with her magic?”

I nod. “I told her about our encounter with Articus, and me being forced into my center. She started panicking about the Fates and was in her own little world. She was checking out how my shoulder was moving, and wasn’t paying attention to me at all, when she healed my shoulder. She only really understood that I was complaining about pain. Malay, being a healer, tried to heal me out of reflex.”

“Why is she so worried about the Fates?”

I almost laugh, “You’re kidding, right?”

Gedric gives me a confused look and raises his eyebrow. “No, I’m not.”

“Do you know anything about the Fates at all?”

“Just that they are linked to those marks you and Ari wear.” He rubs the back of his head, blushing. “Is it incredibly moronic to not know this kind of thing?”

I shake my head when realization hits me. “Sorry, I haven’t really spent time around non magical folks before. For you, no it’s not. If you did, I’d be surprised actually. Help me get warm and I’ll tell you why they’re not something to trust.”